John Schmitt and Milla Sanes have an interesting post[1] on the Center for Economic and Policy Research blog that debunks a bit of common wisdom about the long-term growth in inequality.

Their data show that, overall, the percentage of the workforce working part-time has remained basically stable at around 20% or so.

“Over the last three decades, as economic inequality has been climbing, the overall rate of part-time employment (the top line in the chart) has barely changed….The problem facing workers isn’t a rise in part-time work. The problem is the increasing precarity[2] of full-time work”

In other words, as we’ve reported in this space on many occasions, the growth in inequality can be traced to a long series of policy shifts and changes in corporate attitudes and behavior in which the powers-that-be have simply decided they want a bigger share of the pie. Worker productivity has been going up and up, but it doesn’t matter so long as the corporate plutocrats and the politicians they hire and control promote policies that favor the wealthy.